Full metal palette Carbondale-based Brad Moore has made a career creating images culled from fantasy and horror

Brad Moore is a Carbondale-based artist whose work has appeared in books and magazines and on numerous album and CD covers. His detailed and imaginative scenes mixing fantasy, horror and science fiction are a feast for the eyes. Moore is also a filmmaker who designed the creature in the recently released film "Platypossum."

The Times got the chance to ask Moore a few questions about his art and find out what he's up to.

What was your motivation for becoming an artist and how long have you been at it? I know a lot of your work has wound up on album covers.

I have been an artist since kindergarten, where I made a reputation for drawing dinosaurs and, later, hot rods, often in the same drawing. Cartoons and films filled my imagination since early childhood. I have always tried to capture and convey the tactile impressions that environments would emboss onto my psyche. The feel of an old door knob, while rain is dripping into your clothes while a smell brings back a thought from 10 years ago.

Comic books and novels came into my life - the beat writers, H.P. Lovecraft, the pulps, Ray Harryhausen's work. Then, in college, I discovered Czech animation and European filmmakers, and the die was cast. I consider myself a surrealist, and when I look back on my life's work, I see it has been there all along, way before I knew that term and its meaning.

What are a few of your favorite personal works?

Leaving my early horror comic book work out (I began in the '80s as a horror comics artist and a freelancing inker/colorist) and concentrating on my painting, I have been fortunate that the surrealist canvases I create find their way to record companies, particularly for heavy metal, because that's the area of music that requires artwork, unlike rap or pop.

Some of my favorite work from the commissions I've received are "Truncation of the Zodiac" for Sixty Watt Shaman, "Seed of Decades," Spit Fire Records, Doomed to Inherit, for Divine Empire's "Doomed to Inherit", Mercury Records, all 4 of the cover works for Argus, Cruz del Sur Records (Italy) and my two most recent covers, "Mortos" for Pale Divine, "Self-Titled," Shadow Kingdom Records, and "Chamber of Sacred Ootheca" for Tomb Mold, 20 Buck Spin Records. Of particular note would be "Burial in the Sky", painted for Ed (Monster Magnet) Mundell, for his EP "Through the Dark Matter," Rock Media Los Angeles ... one of my best pieces.

A favorite work that hasn't been published is "Dwellers in the Horoscope," a painting that H.R.Giger liked and displayed at his castle in Switzerland. For those unfamiliar with Giger, he created the alien in the Sigourney Weaver films, among other towering accomplishments.

I understand you've had a hand in films and commercials including recently with the film "Platypossum." I'm curious to learn more.

My film work is an area I return to frequently. The first real film I worked on was "Fishfinger," wherein I play a kung-fu assassin; I built and animated a stop-motion creature. That film played a few times on the now-defunct Tempo TV network nationwide and then vanished. Its director, Steve Latshaw, has gone on to create numerous cult films. I appeared in his "Adventures of Captain Astro."

I personally have created several short films and hosted a Carbondale cable program in the '80s called "Bad Home Movie Theater" that broadcast for 3-4 years.

Of late, I played a small role in Dig Two Graves, a Hollywood feature filmed locally, and designed, built and animated the title creature in "Platypossum, the Movie," directed by author Roger Trexler. I've illustrated a few of his books. "Platypossum" is a throwback satire of 1970s drive-in eco-horror films that would later appear on late night cable TV. It carries an approach from the '50s sci-fi flicks, the trope that science (then, radioactivity, but in this film, hydraulic fracking) running out of control produces monstrosities of nature when nature fights back. The film took four years and tons of hard work, but it's paying off, as the film is viewable on Amazon, and soon to be available on DVD.

Regarding your creative process, how would you describe the roles of improvisation and composition in your work? What Nightlife covers did you do?

My imagery has always come to me all at once and with alarming regularity. I will never live long enough to create works from all the ideas in my sketch books. I keep a large journal with blank pages by my bed, and just as I'm passing out, I get great images. I wake up about 3 times a night and write and draw my dreams and notions.

When metal bands get in touch and want an original piece created just for them, I request samples of the music that will be on that particular album and go with the pictures the music puts in my head. When I get a mental delivery, it all comes at once, though some little bits need tweaking, and there is an editing process, be assured! Improv happens in the instances of the rocks on the ground, the leaves in a tree, the scales on a serpent, etc. I never "free-wheel" it, despite what it looks like. I've been accused of making it up as I go along, but that's false. I utilize the "Golden Ratio" and sacred geometry armatures, which are grid systems for a visually and mentally/psychically pleasing compositional balance. I recommend Laurence Caruana's new book Sacred Codes for a very in-depth analysis of the spiritual and technical approaches to true visionary painting.

When I am commissioned for artwork, I scan and send pencil sketches, but what works best is the old snail-mail system of sending Xerox copies of the sketches and inviting the musicians to write their opinions on the copies and send them back. As old school as that may sound, it works way better than the computer, because, when it is sent to each band member, invariably one member never gets to looking at the art, for months! Then the process is held up, but the artist is held responsible for the product being late. Truth!

I was commissioned to draw and paint Nightlife covers as far back as the early '90s and it continued into the 2000s. I don't recall how many but they were always Halloween issues, so I'm sure you can look them up! I approached the Nightlife with the idea of a running comic strip featuring my character Medusa, the Party Zombie, but it was way too underground … may you live in interesting times.

What other projects are you working on?

Currently, I'm finishing up illustrations for a paperback book, "Nightmare Oasis 2," and working on the album cover for Gatecreeper, "Deserted", on Relapse Records. There are potential film projects. I'm planning exhibits in Maryland, Benton, Illinois, Tennessee and England this year. Nose to the grindstone.

• For more information, visit bradmooreartwizard.com.